Report: Tablets to Eat Up 50 Percent of PC Market in 2014

Sticking desktops, laptops and tablets together into the client PC market, Canalys sees tablets grabbing almost 50 percent of the total in 2014.

Canalys is forecasting total tablet domination, with 285 million units to ship next year and that number hitting 396 million by 2017. Unsurprisingly, Apple and Samsung are expected to lead the charge.

The study saw Apple maintaining its spot as lead tablet vendor and likely strengthening that position over the holiday quarter on the projected demand for the new iPad Air and updated iPad mini.

Representing a bit of a surge though are Windows tablets, which Canalys sees expanding to a five percent market share in 2014, up from two percent in 2012. In the release, Canalys Research Analyst Pin Chen Tang said, “A critical first step is to address the coexistence of Windows Phone and Windows RT. Having three different operating systems to address the smart device landscape is confusing to both developers and consumers alike.”

Despite the headwinds for Windows, Samsung and Android will continue to dominate perform well through next year. Canalys forecasts Android will claim a 65-percent share in 2014 and that Samsung will ship 27 percent of the Android tablets.